We have all talked, heard, or read about the vital importance of having a good leader to achieve success in any business or organization. Most of the time we have done it from the perspective of Human Resources, we ourselves at WeAreAquaculture have dedicated articles to it, talking about leadership styles or overcoming challenges as a leader. However, today we would like to do it from a different perspective, talking not about people but about companies. Should the top or pioneering companies lead by example? Are those at the top of the market or those who are laying the foundations of a new business obliged to do so? Or, on the contrary, should they keep their secrets to themselves in an attempt to be the only ones? We have asked some of them and this is what they think.
Right now, there are a handful of companies breaking new ground in the aquaculture and fishing industry. The union of two major companies, Salmar and Aker, has given rise to SalMar Aker Ocean and its 'Ocean Farm 1', which aspires to be the world's first offshore fish farm. In the announcement about the project that the salmon company made on its website, they state that a "new era in fish farming is on its way" and that with this project the new company "aspires to address central issues related to sustainable growth in the aquaculture industry". While they are looking offshore, another company, Atlantic Sapphire, is doing just the opposite. Their land-based Florida Bluehouse™ is the first one going all-in on RAS and pioneering that they will minimize the footprint and get the food to the consumer without much transport.
There are well-established companies, such as Mowi, leading in vertical integration, having the whole value-chain under one company, or BioMar, one of the big ones that are adding microalgae to its feed. But there are also others that are starting up businesses that could become a very important part of the industry, such as The Seaweed Company with its impact project, or Norcod and Purecod, both dedicated to cod farming, although they are taking different paths to achieve this.
In a conversation with Matts Johansen for one of our Talent Views, we asked him what it was like to have the rare opportunity to build a fishery from scratch. He summed it up by saying, "We have that luxury, that we can start from scratch". Shortly afterwards, the CEO of Aker Biomarine told us about the obligations that come with the privilege of being the leader in a sector where his company harvests 70% of all the krill in the world. "If someone else does something bad, it's going to hurt us, so we need to take responsibility for the whole", he said, so they established the Association of Responsible Krill Harvesting Companies, where they organize "everybody to do the right thing". For the leading Norwegian krill fishing company, such leadership is part of their way of understanding the business. They feel responsible and their main concern is to do things right, especially when it comes to sustainability. "That's a luxury when you start with nothing, and you can actually do it right from the beginning", he summed it up.
In the same interview, Matts Johansen made another reflection: "The challenge a lot of businesses have is that they have a lot of legacy problems, a lot of problems that are related to it, just because this was how things were set up in the beginning", he said. Starting from scratch has that advantage, you avoid the legacy problems, and the new business lays the groundwork from the beginning. However, sometimes being the first also has drawbacks. The Seaweed Company, they are well aware of some of those inconveniences, such as the timing of getting new licenses. Joost Wouters, their CEO, knows all about that. His company, with seaweed plantations in various locations around the world, has been a pioneer when it comes to applying for licenses and has encountered bureaucratic problems that, perhaps at the outset, no one would have imagined.
"When we started in Morocco, it took seven months to get an export license, not because the government didn't want to give it, but they wanted to tax it. But they didn't know what it was. Was it a plant? Was it wheat? What was it?", he says to WeAreAquaculture. And continues: "So in India, the same. It took us eight months to get an export license because no one has done it before and all those bureaucrats in their offices, they think 'yeah, but I need to tick a box'. But there is no box, and then they say 'I don't know, go to the frontal agency and environmentally', you need to decide". Wouters says they were ping-ponging back and forth until they got it right. But they did it, and their example, being the pioneers, will pave the way for those who follow. When they reach the bureaucracy window, don't have that problem anymore.
Step by step, things are changing. If before the priority was economic profit, now it goes beyond that. New businesses are looking to make an impact. The benefits must be economic, of course, but also social and, of course, environmental. "We are a company that is fit for the 22nd century. That means we work with nature, we make decisions based on impact", Joost Wouters says. At The Seaweed Company, they saw that there was room for seaweed companies and in starting the business they told themselves: "We are going to be the pioneers to start this industry and you can be very angry or against the current system, but you will not change the system. The only thing that you can do is to build a new system next to the existing companies and show and prove that you can do with different".
Something similar is true of Atlantic Sapphire. "After years of experience in the industry, we founders felt a desire to help shape the salmon farming industry towards a more sustainable future", says Thue Holm. "Atlantic Sapphire is certainly a pioneer in its industry as we shape the seafood industry towards a greener future with our patented Bluehouse™ technology", adds the CTO and co-founder. His extensive experience working with recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) was a key part of the team's work to build a commercial Bluehouse™ pilot "in an effort to eliminate farming with net pens in remote areas". "We are the future of fish farming and, as such, we are creating a higher standard that is better for aquaculture. The innovative nature of our projects also means that we have a high level of visibility in the industry and marketplace", he says.
Aware of this visibility, they hope that their way of doing things will be an example for those who come after them. "While our revolutionary bio-secure Florida Bluehouse™ is the first to raise salmon on-land in the United States at a large scale, we hope that our example will help us continue to see more sustainable practices in the aquaculture industry", Thue says. And adds, "our efforts position us as an industry leader taking a stand for better health overall for people, the planet and fish. No matter how complex the innovation is".
Pioneers or leaders, all these companies are doing something unique in one way or another, opening new trails for those who come after them. Something that, if you look at it from the opposite perspective, could also be a risk – what if others "copy" you? Rune Eriksen, current Production Director at Norcod and former CEO in the company's early days, doesn't see that as a problem – on the contrary, he is convinced that it is "a good feedback that we are doing things the right way". In his opinion, it is important for leading or pioneering companies to share their experiences, everyone wins. "It's a small industry still at the moment, so we will always gain on making it possible as an industry together, and Norcod will never be able to make an industry alone in farm cod, because the market for fish and cod is so big, so one company can't do it alone", he says.
Commercial cod farming seems to be finally going to be a reality, and if Norcod is going to do it with open cages, Purecod has been the first to get a license to do it using closed cages. A different approach, but a similar point of view regarding getting this incipient industry to become bigger. "Our permit based on the use of closed pens will hopefully serve as precedent in the industry. In the case of cod farming, the opportunity to set the standard right from the beginning is huge, since the industry is still at such early stage of commercial development", Røneset's company tells WeAareAquaculture.
And they go further, "aquaculture is evolving and we know that it is far from fulfilling its potential. We have an important task in further developing this industry, and the goal is to do it solving existing issues", Purecod tells us, where they are also clear that this is not a single-player game. "Coming in as a new player and introducing a new technology also requires strong collaboration, both in the development of equipment and in the dialogue with regulators, the industry, and the public", they say.
Everyone agrees, there are new paths to explore and whoever is willing to look for them, is willing to guide the rest. Joost Wouters, The Seaweed Company CEO, sums it up in a very illustrative example. "If you see the big companies, the existing structure, and the system is like a big oil tanker. They are very hard to move, they can hardly move. But when they enter a harbor, they have those little yellow boats that guide them in and we are those guide boats we can we are flexible, we can show them the way and slowly but surely, they can", he says.
So, if we go back to the beginning and repeat the question, should top or pioneering companies lead by example, the answer is clearly yes, they should. Moreover, aware of their privilege but also their responsibility, these companies not only believe they should do it, they believe they must.